


Unwanted Attention

by NemractWhiskey



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Arguing, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Mesmer Shenanigans, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 17:26:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14598027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NemractWhiskey/pseuds/NemractWhiskey
Summary: Zilili is confronted by an unhappy student about a rumor she has accidentally started about him.





	Unwanted Attention

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short scene I wrote to get a grip on my mesmer's backstory, specifically how she might have practiced her magic back in school.

It was another afternoon, and another years-solved proof in her notebook to work on. Zilili would have liked to just hear the logic behind the theorem and be done with it, but supposedly this helped to “develop problem-solving skills”, and it was easier to assess her basic intellectual performance using tasks like these. She wished next week would come sooner, when she would actually be able to start her open-ended project and arrive at a conclusion on her own terms.

She heard and felt the familiar thunk of a bottle hitting the stone table on her left side. Beller always made his deliveries to her left. Zilili lifted an ear in acknowledgment.

“As per our agreement,” Beller said. He sounded like he hadn’t enjoyed his day too much, either.

“Thank you,” Zilili said, still looking at her work. “I needed that about now. These proofs are grueling.” She expected Beller to laugh, but he was silent. Surprised, Zilili looked up at the other asura. He was leaning against the table, and looked concerned, which was unusual for him in general.

“I need to ask you a serious question, Zilili,” he said.

She could guess what sort of question he was going to ask, once she thought about it. For the past month or so, Zilili had been drawing up an illusionary double of Beller to sit with her in the lecture they shared, so that he could skip without their foul-tempered professor yelling at him later. He had agreed to give her a drink for every time she did this, and it had been working out quite well. He got to go off and do whatever he wasted his time on, and she got both refreshment and practice with her magic.

Nobody suspected a thing about the whole illusion business, of course. If anyone did, it would have been Beller’s fault anyway; Zilili was good at making believable clones as long as she could keep a hand on them. What had happened was that today, she had thoughtlessly laid her arm across the illusion’s shoulders as she listened to the lecture, and the professor had drawn attention to it with a snide comment about her and Beller’s recent inseparability. Zilili had been so startled that she nearly lost the spell right there, but logically Beller wouldn’t be able to know that part. He had probably heard something about himself and wanted to know the real story.

“Go on,” she said.

“Have you been behaving amorously with my illusionary clones?” Beller said. Zilili couldn’t help but smile. She was correct.

“You’d have to give me much more compensation if you wanted that,” she said. The beginnings of a smile formed on Beller’s face as well, but then disappeared.

“Hey, that wasn’t my original question! Seriously, Zil. This isn’t a joke,” he said. “A couple of people today accused me of cheating on Prinna. With you. I find it highly improbable you had no hand in that.” So now there were some serious rumors going around Synergetics. It was amazing how quickly they could mutate into something outrageous and often significantly less related to the original event. She wanted to tell Beller that was silly, but with his attitude towards the whole thing made clear, that wouldn’t be the best choice.

“I didn’t do anything of the sort. You’ve been listening attentively in class, and I’ve been leaning or resting a hand on you to maintain control of the illusion. Nothing more,” Zilili said.

“By the Eternal Alchemy.” Beller let out a sigh. “Zilili, you’ve seriously been leaning against me in every lecture? Now I’m surprised that people haven’t been talking about it longer.”

“Nobody was talking about it because I wasn’t doing it in a suggestive manner at all,” Zilili said. “Professor Greb is just sewer-brained and decided to introduce the idea to everyone because I absentmindedly put my arm on your clone’s shoulders today.”

“Oh, ‘absentmindedly’ made that gesture, did you? So you do actually want to be with me?” Beller said.

“No! It was merely a casual method of staying in contact, Beller,” Zilili said. “Just let the rumors die. If Prinna has an issue, let’s talk to her about it. Does she know about the illusions I’m making?”

“She does. And she will punch your face in if you’ve been doing anything with them,” Beller said.

“I don’t doubt it. That’s why I’m willing to talk about it, so that she knows I haven’t,” Zilili said. “What makes you think I’d want to incite rumors about myself, Beller? This affects me as much as it does you.” The consequences of the rumor were admittedly small, but she hoped Beller’s skewed perception of them would work in her favor.

“I don’t know. I’m inclined to be cautious, though, because mesmers have always had a tendency for convoluted little setups,” Beller said.

“There’s no convolution to be found here. Quite frankly, I just like executing and getting paid for this task of yours. Straightforward as can be,” Zilili said. “And I’ll be more careful in handling it now.” Beller tapped his claws against the side of the table.

“Hmm. I’ll believe you for now, but if you’re just souring your ears, know that Phlunt will personally have you scrub them raw when I find out. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you. Tell Prinna to talk to me if she suspects you at all.”

“Prinna wouldn’t suspect me. She’d suspect you. But I will.” Beller turned and walked away. Zilili didn’t actually like him too much, but his request was very reasonable compared to the ones for memory erasure she had gotten from other students. Sometimes, they made her feel almost like mesmer magic was all just a shady business and not the art that had originally attracted her interest. It also didn’t help that Statics’ former most popular mesmer and chronomancer student had gotten expelled for using it to cheat on his work.

She uncorked the bottle and took in the sweet aroma of processed ooze. This wasn’t a big deal, though. Everyone would forget the incident within a week, so long as Beller didn’t make noise about it himself. And if he did… Well, she could cross that bridge when the destroyers necessitated it.


End file.
